South Dallas arts leaders plan to engage Dallas ISD schools, community programs

VanAnthony Williams, general manager of the South Dallas Cultural Center, Lisa Brown Ross, president and CEO of the African American Museum of Dallas and Nijeul X, executive and artistic director of Forest Forward, share what’s ahead for their institutions, from upcoming arts programs to plans for engaging Dallas ISD schools and inspiring the next generation of artists.

This conversation is part of a larger Dallas Free Press roundtable with the three new South Dallas arts and culture leaders.

🎥 Watch the full roundtable discussion here.

Transcript

Introduction

VanAnthony Williams: We can show these kids that they can produce work here, and they can have a gallery opening. They can experience these things that are important and critical in your development as a young artist. So, I’m definitely interested in connecting with schools, and that’s something that is on the top of my list.

DFP: What programming do you have coming up at your institution, and how does it connect to your larger vision?

VanAnthony Williams: With specific programming, I think that there’s some catalog programs that we have here that need a better story told rather than a complete renovation. The Music Lounge is our concert series that we host here quarterly, getting folks here to create and be together and commune. We also have an intro mixer – a mixer series where we get artists together and collaborate and fly folks in to have some master classes and whatnot. And so in that vein, what I believe this institution’s purpose is to be an incubator. It is to grow and develop young artists who are curious and exploring the African diaspora. And so that curiosity is what I am hoping to lean into for children, is giving them the space to be curious, teaching them how to be curious. Some folks are afraid of being curious and trying. 

One of my favorite things to talk about is providing people the opportunity to fail gloriously, like to strive so hard and to keep and providing that space what it feels like that you’re in a space that you’re capable of trying something and not succeeding and then figuring out how to do it again and keep going at it. So that that’s what I believe this space is meant to be, and what I’m supposed to serve. And so we’re really going to be focusing on education, of not just not just kids, but of the entire community, hosting more authors and conversations with the community. You know, we’ll have quite a bit of that coming in, as well as some smaller things with story times and childhood development that we’ll be bringing on. So education and artist incubation are really what I’m looking forward to, to helping pave that path.

Nijeul X: Okay, I’m trying to get the theater open. I know we’ve talked about it. I don’t know if I share just like all that is in this space, because now that the space is under construction, I don’t think a lot of people know all this in this container at MLK and SM right. There’s a 1000 seat concert hall, a 200 seat studio theater. There is a 13,000 square foot maker’s space that has a podcast studio, recording studio, media lab, and an immersive video art studio soundstage. There’s green space, meeting space, there’s a kitchen, there’s bars. It’s a lot of space, and I’m grateful for the Forest Foward team, for all the work to both fundraise, but also to just imagine that we need that type of space. And I’m going to be spending the next year collaborating with both community members and the leadership team to really figure out how we fill this space. How do we fill this space to close gaps that may exist in the performance space. How do we use this space in a way that builds an ecosystem so that dollars stay within our community? We’re building the skills of folks in the community, and we’re able to use the space in order to activate that I have dreams about. 

There’s a play – “The Colored Museum” and it’s a series of vignettes by George C. Wolfe. The last vignette is called the party. Are you familiar with this? It’s basically this party where this woman is at and she sees Fats Waller, she sees Duke Ellington, she sees Aunt Jemima in the kitchen, cooking. When I think about our programming, I think about a space where artists and community members are just filling the space going to see multi-disciplinary work, from dance theater to film to being a part of dynamic talks, doing dynamic demonstrations. I could see people dancing in the halls while getting coffee to talk about the next big creative project. Yeah, how do I create a container where the art on stage is inspiring people to actually create? And how do we create a space where people can just come out, hang out, and be creative? I’m excited to feel that. I don’t expect to do it alone.

Lisa Brown Ross: I am so excited for both of you. I really am. I am just grateful for this time. Well, the African American Museum is 38,000 square feet, three floors. Every morning that I walk in the building, I walk the entire 38,000 square feet. I get chills when I go in there. 

I’m really interested in getting children into the museum, and so that’s going to be one of our focuses, is to get younger people into the museum. Into their museum. We have an entire educational suite downstairs in the basement area. We’re renovating that, putting some new paint on the walls. We have an auditorium. We have a literary series. I’m very excited to say that this summer, we were given a grant that focused on our conservation work, and which is huge. It’s not just to conserve and preserve, but if we’re going to move forward for the future, we have to understand how important that is. This past summer, we brought in both high school and college students from the HBCUs to learn about conservation work. The exhibit that we have, Mr. Imagination, is probably the only exhibit in the country that also has a conservation lab in the back of the exhibit, so that our visitors can see in real time what the science is behind conservation work. This is important because it allows students to see that that could be a career path for them.

Nijeul X: We got to talk to you because I’m excited to hear and learn. Van already knows this. I’ve been asking, like, “Okay, how do I fit into this puzzle so that we are maximizing the opportunities and also being coordinated?” One of the questions I asked early on coming into this role is, “is there a table of the black art and cultural institutions?” and we’re here.

VanAnthony Williams: We’re here, right here, right now.

DFP: Is there a larger plan to engage Dallas ISD schools in arts programs?

VanAnthony Williams: I have a huge appetite for that. Right now what I’ve called, what I’ve deemed the “DISD Walls” is outside of the exhibition space. Those are all artists from Billy Dade [Middle School]. So, those are young artists that Miss Gunther comes over and hangs their art. And I asked her, I was like, Well, where are the other schools? And so connecting with those other teachers and getting into the institutions so that we can show these kids that they can produce work here, and they can have a gallery opening. They can experience these things that are important and critical in your development as a young artist. So, I’m definitely interested in connecting with schools, and that’s something that is on the top of my list.

Nijeul X: I mean, I think a lot about how the art came to me when I was a teen. I’ve spoken to a couple of the teachers at both Lincoln and Madison, and just really trying to understand today’s teen in relationship to storytelling, being able to be in conversation with stories, being able to be in conversation with others. And while I was in Chicago, I was at Steppenwolf Theater Company, and they have a really robust page-to-stage program specifically dedicated to teens. So, we’d choose a book, that book would be adapted and performed and presented on the stage, and there’d be a series of programming across discipline to actually have young people be in conversation with this piece. From them doing parties and gatherings to book club readings to workshops. I’m not 100% sure that is what we’ll do, but what I do know is there is a gap there for stories from the black experience, both for teens and for younger people. So, I am curious how to use the work on stage to really interact with teens and high school students, both in the making, but also in the receiving and in just the overall conversation. It’s something that impacted how I’m able to show up today, and if I had any offerings, I feel like that’s important, because that’ll be our next patrons, and, you know, next audience members, and next, you know, cohort of artists.

Lisa Brown Ross: I’m looking to hear from our youth, and that’s one of the one of the goals I have in the next 60 days, is to really go to the schools and listen to them to hear what is it that you want in a museum? Do you know what the museum has for you? Do you know what we offer? How can we make it better? What will bring you into the museum? What are your needs and meet them where they are. I’ve been on a listening tour for the last 30-45 days, and the one of the missing links is the youth. I’m very interested because they’re our future. To hear what is it that will spark your imagination about walking through this sacred place? So, that’s my next move. One of the things that we did do – our summer program is robust. So what the operations manager did is she said, “Let’s take the museum to them.” And it’s not a pop up. It’s a little bit more than a pop up. But they had the lessons and the education, and they were very engaged in the process of creating art. So that was, that was something, that was that that was that was really good. And I’m looking to do that again next year.

Nijeul X: Can I come to that visit with you? 

Lisa Brown Ross: Absolutely. 

Nijeul X: You’re right, like young people are changing so rapidly. It doesn’t hurt to be responsive in that way. 

Lisa Brown Ross: We need to set that up. And I think what I’m hearing is that a lot of young people don’t feel that they are being heard, that they’re not included. But, you know, I’m over here doing my thing. You can’t hear me. So I think we have to be intentional about it.

Nijeul X: And there are ways in which I know that I’ve experienced before, by building a young adult council, building some representation, to be able to more structurally hear from them more often. Which actually, as we say here, I’m like, “Oh, that actually may be a good thing for us all to collaborate on,” because they can help inform a lot of what we do.